The present invention relates to a device for connecting an electric component, such as a flexible board, that partially includes, at the least, a flexible region.
Since for a flexible board flexibility provides a great degree of freedom for changes in shapes, flexible boards are widely employed as connection means for electrically connecting wiring boards, liquid crystal display panels, camera modules, etc., in equipment for which the body sizes are limited. Both ends of a flexible board serve as connection regions, and connection terminal arrays are formed on these ends. Therefore, for a case wherein a flexible board is to be connected to a wiring board, etc., deformation of the flexible board is corrected using an electric component connection device, which includes a first holding portion (a thermo-compression bonding head that is normally used for both suction and heating) for holding one of the connection regions that are to be connected and a second holding portion for holding the other connection region. In this manner, a terminal array formed on one of the connection regions can be very accurately connected to a wiring board, etc., that is a connection target (see patent document 1).
[Patent Document 1] JP-A-2004-148436
According to the device described in patent document 1, a drive system that changes vertically, relative to one connection region that is to be connected, a height for the other connection region, is provided for the second holding portion, and the shape of the flexible board can be changed. The first holding portion and the second holding portion, which together serve as a conveying head for transporting the flexible board with being held, hold the flexible board that is stored on a tray, convey it to the wiring board for connection, and perform alignment. Therefore, since the drive system is provided for the second holding portion, not only the size of the conveying head, but its weight is increased, and it is especially difficult to cope with a case wherein bonding under a low load is required. Furthermore, for the device, since it can not be assumed that a connection operation will be performed in the vicinity of a limited connection region of a wiring board having a high packaging density, etc., the device is not an appropriate one for the connection of a flexible board to a wiring board on which electric components are mounted.